Prospect Trends — Week Ending 8/21

The Pirates are facing a potentially significant roster crunch this off-season, with numerous prospects becoming eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Adding to the pressure are one or two players who probably wouldn't have been in line for consideration a short while ago, but who are making late pushes. Late season performances could have a lot of impact on the Pirates' thinking.

TRENDING UP

Jose Ascanio, RHP (AAA): The Pirates started getting Ascanio stretched out in the past week and he showed signs that he may be nearly all the way back from shoulder surgery. He threw three scoreless innings on Wednesday and six on Sunday. In the nine innings he allowed just four hits and a walk, and fanned ten. In August so far he's fanned 13 in 12 innings and allowed no runs. The Pirates may need to consider putting him back on the 40-man roster. He had outstanding stuff before the injury.

Pedro Ciriaco, UT (AAA): It's been a miserable year for Ciriaco, as his .520 OPS shows. The last...

Wilbur Miller joined the site in July 2010. He has long been known for his excellent Player Profiles, which he brought to the site in February 2011, combining them with the existing Pirates Prospects Player Pages. Wilbur maintains the player pages section of the site, and provides regular articles to the main portion of the site, including a weekly Prospects Trend piece, featuring the best and worst prospects from the previous week.